World Cup 2022: France cruise past Poland into the quarter-finals

In a thoroughly controlled performance, France beat Poland 3-1. Les Bleus never looked in danger against the Poles, who were 2-0 down at one stage. Poland could have taken the lead, though, but Robert Lewandowski's team-mates missed a huge chance. Standing alone on the penalty spot, Zielinski unleashed a powerful shot but was denied by Hugo Lloris, who made a fine save. The ball fell back to Kaminski in front of goal, but Raphael Varane made a last-ditch clearance, pushing the shot off the line.

It was a miss that would prove very costly for Poland, as the French were quick to open the scoring. From a through ball, Kylian Mbappé found Olivier Giroud in the gap between two defenders in the box. France's number 9 made no mistake in his one-on-one with the goalkeeper (44th minute). Giroud thus became France's all-time top scorer. With his 52 goals, he moves ahead of Thiery Henry (51 goals).

After the break, the world champions stepped up the pressure. Against a nervy White Eagles side lacking a clinical edge, France doubled their lead. On a counter-attack, Giroud set up Dembelé on the right, and the Barcelona player delivered a superb pass to Kylian Mbappé at the edge of the box. The PSG forward fired a shot at the near post and beat Szczesny into the top corner.

Completely outplayed, the Poles even conceded a third goal. And again it was Mbappé who scored. Set up by Marcus Thuram on the left corner of the box, he curled a shot into the opposite top corner (90+1). The White Eagles did pull one back from the penalty spot, converted by Robert Lewandowski (90+5). In the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup, France will face the winner of England versus Senegal.